The Toy Man® News & Reviews is well over 40+ years of experience with a whole lot more than just toys.

In essence, this page has been designed to serve as an informative source of details about The Toy Man® News & Reviews to assist our readers in understanding its full purpose, functionality, and how to benefit from its use.

On Monday, 11 January, 1971, The Toy Man® News & Reviews began as a collaborative creation of credentialed scholars, a young kid with a vision, and lots of hard work. This group was all part of an organization known as the International Parenting Institute™, IPi™.

At that time in society as a whole, when a family went to a store that carried toys, most families always remembered the man in the toy store or department so well. He represented an association with fun, frolic, and good family values. More often than not, family members always referred to him as "The Toy Man®".

It was a commonplace thing for parents and kids alike to discuss everything under the sun with "The Toy Man®" in general conversation. There was a manner of trust and comfort level with "The Toy Man®" because he was always the one who had all the answers about the vast array of toys and other items during shopping excursions.

It was the idea of "The Toy Man®" and the image he represented that inspired the founders of the International Parenting Institute™, IPi™ to create "The Toy Man®" hard copy publication which is now, over 40 years later recognized across the globe online as The Toy Man® News & Reviews.

The Toy Man®
A Humble Beginning

The Toy Man® News & Reviews started with a very humble beginning as an 18 page hard copy publication called "The Toy Man®". It was published on a monthly basis with each issue printed on a different color of paper coinciding with the season at that time. It featured a large variety of content such as Family Interests, a "Just for Kids" section, Health & Fitness, and so much more. Everyone was so proud of our simple publication. It even had staples to bind the pages together!

At that time in society as a whole, when a family went to a store that carried toys, most families always remembered the man in the toy store or department so well. He represented an association with fun, frolic, and good family values. More often than not, family members always referred to him as "The Toy Man®".

"The Toy Man®" began to evolve as the years passed, constantly being revised, more pages being added, and finally running advertisements from sponsors. The excitement amongst all of our staff was never at a minimum. There was always great anticipation to see the latest responses from people with each month's new edition.

The Good Just Keeps Getting Better
Introduction of The Toy Man® Seal of Approval

"The Toy Man® News & Reviews" now had opportunity to develop "added-value" to our highly detailed product & service reviews. The International Parenting Institute™ staff became quite active in the research and development of an emblem that could potentially deliver that "added-value" to a product or service from a source independent of the product manufacturer.

The end result of their labors was the introduction of The Toy Man® Seal of Approval. Originally created in 1971, it's purpose was to represent the high bar in accuracy and respected International standards of product recognition. This applied to products that pass our strict evaluation process. It is now an Internationally recognized iconic emblem that serves as not just a Seal per se' but rather a validation Seal to verify a product or service has in fact passed our strict evaluation standards.

The best way to demonstrate the value and respect of The Toy Man® Seal of Approval is to reference how many of the awards programs that exist today, have elected to incorporate the term "Seal of Approval" as an award rather than an actual "seal" (according to dictionary definition), in their "awards program."

We invite you to learn more about "The Toy Man® Awards", another facet of our efforts to give further recognition to products that pass our strict evaluation, and how they can be of benefit to you.

Communicating In Color
The Next Stage of The Toy Man™

Opportunities to expand and communicate even better with our readers were a constant with "The Toy Man®". To fulfill the need for our readership and sponsors, on 3 June, 1981, "The Toy Man®" changed its humble format of print to a 38 page full color magazine that was soon after approved for use in public libraries.

With the ever growing readership and popularity of "The Toy Man®", a dramatic change in the structure as well as content of our publication had to change. There is always room for improvement and to communicate to our readers in color was inevitably the best move to make. Considering that "The Toy Man®" was now in public libraries, adding colorful imagery and a more professional layout was simply a must.

Our readers had a voracious appetite for more information on toys, games, and a wealth of other content. The full color "The Toy Man®" magazine proved to be a monumental step to fill their appetite yet with time that was just not enough. To resolve that challenge, our content began to move to the BBS's, (Electronic Bulletin Board Systems), the next step in social interaction before the introduction of the Internet.

With the BBS's we created a "hub", network of individuals across the country and eventually the globe, who had some form of a computer ranging from a CP/M machine to what was the first personal computers introduced to the consumer market. On each of these machines, you could dial-in and download virus-free "ChildSafe™" content which was part of "The Toy Man®" published content. Just now it was in electronic form in text, image, or game form.

Times change and so do methods of publishing. With each year that passed, the majority of our content began to shift to product evaluations. On 4th July, 1994, the name "The Toy Man®" used for our publication was changed to "The Toy Man® News & Reviews", to fit the content of our publication more effectively.

With a monumental volume of interest suddenly shifting to the Internet, it soon became apparent that the interest of consumers had a high probability of eventually moving their focus from printed copy to online content. To capture the market before others realized the same vision as our own, The Toy Man® News & Reviews magazine was retired and we moved to online presence only.

We soon discovered that the move to the online only decision saved us a significant amount of money, yet the online environment was an entirely new creature with challenges we never before imagined. Despite the challenges before us, we continued on with a never ending focus on improvement and setting new standards with The Toy Man® News & Reviews.